At Least 12 People Killed in Shooting at Navy Building in Washington

reporter - navy yard shootingAt least 12 people have been killed at a Navy building in Washington by a gunman who was later killed but may not have acted alone, authorities said.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier told reporters that 12 people died in the 8:20 a.m. incident at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters in southeast Washington. There were conflicting reports on the number of victims and the number of gunmen in the ensuing hours, although a federal law enforcement official told Fox News that one shooter has died. Police said as many as two additional gunmen may still be at large, and thousands of workers who report to the building were being told to “shelter in place” until officials could safely evacuate them.

“This is not over,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, the U.S. Navy’s chief spokesman, told reporters. “The building is still in lockdown, as are other buildings. Still being treated as an active search. No one is moving right now.”

People who were inside the building said a gunman wordlessly sprayed fire from an AR-15 assault rifle as terrified civilians and Navy members scattered.

More than 20 members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) responded to the scene, including the same Special Response Team that extracted the alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from the boat where he barricaded himself following the April 15 attack.

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Busted Again: Charlie Rangel Fails to Report $200k in Political Donations

Photo Credit: The Gateway Pundit

Photo Credit: The Gateway Pundit

Tax cheat and crook Charlie Rangel is back in the news again for not disclosing funds. In 2010, Rangel lost his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee because of an investigation into 2 corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean. Later that year, the House of Representatives formally censured him after he was found guilty of 11 ethics violations. Violations included failure to disclose over $600,000 in assets on a financial disclosure report as well as short changing the IRS for 17 years on rental income from his villa in the Dominican Republic. He also raided his PAC for $393,000 to pay legal fees.

Now, Rangel and New York City Councilwoman Inez Dickens are in the hot seat for not disclosing $200,000 in funds for their Harlem political club they have had since 1999.

NY Post reported:

A Harlem political club, which benefits from taxpayer money and boasts Rep. Charles Rangel and Councilwoman Inez Dickens as district leaders, has received more than $200,000 in donations since 1999 but didn’t report the income or even register with the state, officials said.

Dickens also happens to be the Martin Luther King Jr. Democratic Club’s landlord, collecting monthly rent.

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Video: Police Chief Addresses Girls Open-Carrying in a Walmart (+video)

Gun Open CarryIn this video, Police Chief Doug Fannan, discusses the situation from Part 1. While there WERE errors committed by both me and the Marshfield PD, Chief Fannan strikes me as the type of individual who would recognize his mistakes and adjust his department according to the Constitutional, Freedom-protecting perspective. This is all a HUGE learning curve, and we need to combat the YEARS of Brain-washing that Statist agendas have foisted on our liberties.

The goal here is NOT to trash anyone, but to open an honest dialogue with those in law-enforcement who are serious about keeping their Oaths-of-office and safeguarding the freedoms of those they have sworn to protect and serve.

When cops become thugs and citizens don’t exercise their rights, freedom deteriorates and tyranny advances. There ARE a FEW good cops out there who REALLY care about the FREEDOMS of the people they serve. Our country certainly needs them to hold the line in this critical time on our country’s history!

WSJ: Former U.S. Secretary Lawrance Summers Withdraws Name for Federal Reserve Chairman Position

Photo Credit:Getty Images

Photo Credit:Getty Images

According to the Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has withdrawn his name from consideration as Federal Reserve chairman and has called President Obama on the matter, citing an expected “acrimonious” coming confirmation battle.

The White House disputed a Japanese newspaper’s report that Summers will be named the next chairman of the Federal Reserve by President Obama, according to USA Today.

More from USA Today:

The Nikkei newspaper, which did not publicly name its sourcing for its story, said Obama was “set to” name Summers to the position, possibly as early as next week.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a tweet Friday that “the latest rumors this morning in the Japanese press aren’t true” and that Obama “has not yet made a decision on Fed Chair.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Dialing Back the Alarm on Climate Change

Photo Credit: Dadu Shin

Photo Credit: Dadu Shin

Later this month, a long-awaited event that last happened in 2007 will recur. Like a returning comet, it will be taken to portend ominous happenings. I refer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) “fifth assessment report,” part of which will be published on Sept. 27.

There have already been leaks from this 31-page document, which summarizes 1,914 pages of scientific discussion, but thanks to a senior climate scientist, I have had a glimpse of the key prediction at the heart of the document. The big news is that, for the first time since these reports started coming out in 1990, the new one dials back the alarm. It states that the temperature rise we can expect as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide is lower than the IPPC thought in 2007.

Admittedly, the change is small, and because of changing definitions, it is not easy to compare the two reports, but retreat it is. It is significant because it points to the very real possibility that, over the next several generations, the overall effect of climate change will be positive for humankind and the planet.

Specifically, the draft report says that “equilibrium climate sensitivity” (ECS)—eventual warming induced by a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which takes hundreds of years to occur—is “extremely likely” to be above 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), “likely” to be above 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and “very likely” to be below 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 Fahrenheit). In 2007, the IPPC said it was “likely” to be above 2 degrees Celsius and “very likely” to be above 1.5 degrees, with no upper limit. Since “extremely” and “very” have specific and different statistical meanings here, comparison is difficult.

Still, the downward movement since 2007 is clear, especially at the bottom of the “likely” range. The most probable value (3 degrees Celsius last time) is for some reason not stated this time.

Read more from this story HERE.

Syria Claims Win in Weapons Deal

U.S. Forces Battle Rising Insurgency In IraqA high-ranking Syrian official called the U.S.-Russian agreement on securing Syria’s chemical weapons a “victory” for President Bashar Assad’s regime, but the United States warned on Sunday “the threat of force is real” if Damascus fails to carry out the plan.

The comments by Syrian Minister of National Reconciliation Ali Haidar to a Russian state news agency were the first by a senior Syrian government official on the deal struck a day earlier in Geneva. Under the agreement, Syria will provide an inventory of its chemical arsenal within one week and hand over all of the components of its program by mid-2014.

“We welcome these agreements,” Haidar was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti agency. “On the one hand, they will help Syrians get out of the crisis, and on the other hand, they averted a war against Syria by removing the pretext for those who wanted to unleash one.”

He added: “These agreements are a credit to Russian diplomacy and the Russian leadership. This is a victory for Syria, achieved thanks to our Russian friends.”

There has been no official statement from the Syrian government.

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Audit Finds IRS Employees Don’t Follow Their Own Rules

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

The Internal Revenue Service does not always follow its own rules when attempting to collect unpaid taxes, according to a new audit.

A review of the IRS Office of Appeals, which resolves disputes between the agency and taxpayers, found officials did not always follow proper procedures when dealing with taxpayers or their legally designated representatives. Under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, agents in the office are required to stop taking action against taxpayers if the taxpayer asks to consult with a representative – a financial assistant or the like.

It’s similar to how a suspect can request a lawyer before answering questions from police.

From that point forward, any action taken by the IRS is supposed to include the taxpayers’ official representative. But many times it does not.

In 11 of the 96 cases audited by theTreasury Inspector General, IRS employees violated those rules in one way or another – usually by contacting the taxpayer directly without going through the official legal channels.

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China Builds Fast to Trigger Drone Race with America

Photo Credit: The Sunday Times

Photo Credit: The Sunday Times

CHINA has sent a military drone on what is thought to be the first mission of its kind in a significant show of the country’s determination to match America and Japan in the technology of warfare.

Japanese F-15 jet fighters scrambled from a base in Okinawa last Monday to intercept the unmanned aerial vehicle, which turned back towards the Chinese coast.

Although the drone flew in international airspace, officials in Tokyo said it had entered Japan’s air defence identification zone. Last year Japan scrambled its fighters more than 300 times to intercept Chinese military aircraft.

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Brain-Eating Amoeba Discovered in Louisiana Plumbing System

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

An investigation is underway to determine how a rare brain-eating amoeba found its way into a plumbing system of a home in Louisiana, according to the Center for Disease Control.

A four-year-old boy from Mississippi became the fourth confirmed infection in 2013 of the amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, last week, after playing in water from the home in St. Barnard Parish, La.

The Department of Health and Hospitals in Louisiana has confirmed that the amoeba was found in the home’s plumbing system.

In previous cases, the CDC has linked the infections to warm water and drought conditions.

“When we go back and look at where exposure may have occurred, we see the infections occur where water levels are low or where there are drought conditions or after a heat wave,” Dr. Jennifer Cope, medical epidemiologist at the CDC, told AccuWeather.com.

Read more from this story HERE.